Game of Thrones - One Shots/Imagines: Part Three

Ned Stark X Baratheon!Reader - Time Honoured Tradition

A/N - This chapter is based on the song 'Time Honoured Tradition' by The Kaiser Chiefs. I always find it really strange writing for Ned because I think him and Cat work so well together that I can't really picture him with anyone else, but I had this little scene playing out in my head that I couldn't get rid of. Reader is the sister of Robert Baratheon. I hope you all enjoy it.

You sighed as you watched Robert from a distance, cackling along to some stupid joke being made by some pretty little thing. Seven Hells, he didn't even have the decency to hide it from his wife, sitting right in front of her with his hands roaming to places that wouldn't have even been deemed decent in a whore house. 

"What's wrong?" You startled slightly, your game falling directly onto your husband's frowning face. He had always been a worrier, long before the two of you had been introduced, but since you had been married it was as though he had taken on enough worrying for you as well. 

"Nothing," you uttered softly, patting his knee lightly as you shifted a little closer to him on the bench. "I was just watching. Crowds like these are always full of interesting characters-"

"You were watching Robert," he interrupted, watching as your relaxed facade dropped, replaced by a frown of your own. You nodded slightly. "Did you see what you wanted to see?" 

You raised your eyebrows at him. "Not exactly what I wanted to see, but what I've come to expect to see," you muttered, allowing your eyes to drift back to your brother on the other side of the Great Hall. It was true. He had become a little bit too accustomed to the lifestyle in King's Landing, and you were already beginning to see the effects. "He's going to eat and drink and whore himself into an early grave," you added, another sigh slipping out of you.

"He'll get it out of his system soon enough."

A choked snort of laughter burst out of you at his comment, and suddenly your eyes were fixed on him again. "If you truly believe that then you don't know my brother like I thought you did," you started. "It doesn't matter anyhow. Whether he stops this week, or never, the last two months of non-stop boozing will catch up with him eventually."

Ned shifted, placing his arm around you and pulling you closer to him. "It's tradition for the King to celebrate his coronation with parties and feasts-"

"For a week," you interrupted him, raising an eyebrow as if you were asking him to correct you. "I'm beginning to worry he won't ever stop celebrating at this rate. And if he doesn't, I'm almost certain it won't be the drink that finishes him off, but his less than pleased wife," you continued, nodding for him to look over his shoulder. Sure enough, Cersei Lannister was sitting at the head of the room, staring at her husband with the same distaste painted across her features as you had been a moment earlier. 

"He'll be getting an earful tonight," your husband snorted, and for a moment you relaxed into his touch. This was what it had been like before everything had changed, the two of you sitting together making silly jokes at your sibling's expenses. It was one of the many things that had helped you fall in love with him.

"If he ever makes it to her chambers," you added, a small chuckle of your own falling from your lips before you could catch it. 

Ned smiled down at you. "You know, you needn't worry about him. He's a grown man, he can take care of himself," he told you, pressing a kiss to the side of your head. 

"I know," you murmured, resting your head on his shoulder. 

"Besides," he added, his hand coming to rest over your stomach. "So much stress will be bad for the baby." 

A proper smile came back to your lips as you swatted his hand away. "Stop it," you scolded him softly, shifting away from him slightly. "No one's supposed to know yet, remember," you added, watching his own smile grow. 

"Robert will know the moment he sees that you aren't drinking," he told you, taking your hand in his and pulling you back into his side. 

"Robert wouldn't have noticed a thing if he was stone cold sober, let alone now."

Ned let out a soft chuckle, shaking his head at his comment. And then suddenly, his smile faltered, returning a moment later with a slightly awkward twinge to it. 

"Are you having fun, sister?" Shit. It seemed Ned had been quite the distraction.

You twisted in your seat to smile up at Robert. "I would be if I had any idea what tonight was in celebration of," you murmured, raising an eyebrow at him as he rolled his eyes. 

He slumped down beside you, forcing you a little closer to Ned on the bench. "It is to celebrate me being a fucking wonderful King," he started, throwing his arm around your shoulders with a sharp laugh. 

"Oh?" you uttered, shaking your head at his drunken swaying. "I thought we celebrated that last week," you paused for a moment, a small smile pulling at your lips. "And the week before that, and, now that I come to think about it, the one before that too."

Robert snorted as he reached for your cup, only for you to pull it out of his reach. "Oi," he grumbled, reaching for it again only for you to lift it from the table entirely, placing it to your lips and taking a deep swig. 

"You wouldn't like it anyway," Ned uttered across you, offering you a small smile as he nudged you with his knee. 

"I disagree," Robert muttered, pulling the cup out of your hand a little too forcefully, and causing it to slosh over into your lap. 

You stood up quite suddenly, wiping the water from your skirts as he finally took a sip from your cup. "You're a fool," you bit out, smacking him around the back of his head. 

Robert glanced up at you with wide, his attention slipping between you and the cup. "You're pregnant," he finally started. "I fucking knew you were being weird, both of you-"

"Would you be quiet?" you spat at him, sinking back down onto the bench as you gripped his arm tightly in your hand. "We haven't told anyone yet," you added, your voice a little softer. 

"Why would you keep this to yourselves? This is the Stark heir," Robert started again, shaking his head in disbelief. 

"Because the moment I announce it to the court, you'll throw another one of these stupid parties," you bit out. "I don't want my child to be just another excuse for you to get blind drunk."

Robert scoffed slightly, and you felt Ned tense beside you, his hand resting on your knee in a silent warning. "It's tradition to wet the babe's head-"

"It's not a tradition when you do it every night anyway," you interrupted, fixing him with a glare and watching him deflate slightly. You swallowed around the lump in your throat, calming your temper. "I want you to be in my children's life, Robert. You will make a wonderful uncle, but I want them to know the you I know, not this inebriated version of you that will die long before his time." 

Y/N," Ned murmured, both of you watching as Robert absorbed the information you had just given him. 

"You're right," he finally uttered, breaking the awkward silence between you. "I'll stop with the parties," he added. "And the drinking." 

You gave a short nod, taking his hand in yours and giving it a gentle squeeze.

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